[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 4, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S2181]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Equal Pay Day

  Mr. President, today is Equal Pay Day. Unlike many holidays on our 
calendar, Equal Pay Day is not actually a commemoration of some 
achievement. Equal pay for women is still not close to a reality. Women 
still make 79 cents for every dollar a man makes in the same position. 
African-American women are making 64 cents on the dollar. Latina women 
are making 54 cents on the dollar. That is not right. It is holding the 
American dream out of reach for too many women in this country. So 
Equal Pay Day is not a commemoration; it is a reminder that glass 
ceilings are everywhere and that there are hugely consequential and 
tangible barriers that women face every single day that men do not.
  In 2007, the Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 decision by the conservative 
majority in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, ruled that Lilly Ledbetter could not 
pursue her claim that she was entitled to equal pay. The Lilly 
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which reversed this unfair Supreme Court 
decision, was the first bill President Obama signed into law in 2009.